“The Mystery of Darwin’s Frog”

No, the big frog on the cover of Marty Crump’s “The Mystery of Darwin’s Frog” is not eating the little frog, but (kind of) giving birth to it. This is the peculiar amphibian known as Darwin’s Frog, an endangered South American species.

Like seahorses, the males in this species brood the babies — in this case, tadpoles. Unlike the seahorse, which has a marsupial pouch, a daddy Darwin’s Frog hangs around a bunch of fertilized eggs, waiting for the eggs to hatch as tadpoles. Then Dad slurps them into his mouth. Instead of traveling to his stomach, the tadpoles spend two months in their father’s vocal sac, surviving on the yolk each hatchling possesses.

When the tadpoles turn into tiny frogs, they crawl into their father’s mouth and wait to be burped into the world.

Author Marty Crump’s clear, engaging text does justice to this extraordinary true story, and explains why an unusual fungus is threatening the species.

Boulder artist and illustrator Steve Jenkins‘ marvelous paper collages show how those overburdened fathers manage to house their growing progeny, supplemented by Edel Rodriguez’s maps, timelines and silhouettes. The photographs of the pointy-nosed frogs are by a handful of photographers, including author Crump.